Islanders Rumors: Veteran Has Played Last Game With Team

The New York Islanders were eliminated in the first round by the Carolina Hurricanes and it just shows that, along with barely making the playoffs, changes must be made in the offseason to improve. The Islanders are an old team with many veterans and that needs to change as the league is getting younger and there are some young players pushing for spots.

One of the changes that is going to be made is moving on from Josh Bailey, whether that be through a trade or buyout. A trade is much more likely as the Islanders don't necessarily want to be wasting cap space. Bailey played up and down the lineup this season, but wasn't nearly as effective as he has been in the past, even finding himself on the fourth line or as a healthy scratch.

Bailey played 64 games and scored eight goals and 25 points. Although he has never been one to score a lot of goals, he can usually score more goals and put up much more points than he did. Since he was fairly ineffective this season, his ice time dropped by nearly two full minutes per game. He is capable of playing all three forward positions, but his contract has one more year remaining on it with a cap hit of $5 million. It won't be easy to move and will likely cost a draft pick, but it will be a necessary sacrifice to get better next season.